The American Wind Energy Association, an industry trade group, says the roughly two-minute clip it posted on YouTube this week shows the potential for the nation’s fishing industry as larger projects are envisioned up and down the East Coast.

“The turbine foundations are now acting as an artificial reef,” said Nancy Sopko, the wind energy association’s director of offshore wind and federal legislative affairs. “This is a success story that can be replicated all along our coastlines.”

But the video does little to temper the concerns of commercial fishermen, who are worried about navigating dense forests of turbines to get to their historic fishing grounds, says Jim Kendall, a former scallop fisherman in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“This is nice and fun to see, but it doesn’t tip the conversation,” Seth Rolbein, of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance in Chatham, Massachusetts, said of the video.

Offshore wind developers from New England to the Carolinas are racing to build the nation’s first large-scale wind farm. Many of the projects call for hundreds of turbines to be built miles away from shore, sometimes within or along the path to lucrative fishing spots.

The wind energy association video shows beds of mussels taking shape and small fish swimming around the turbine bases. The brief underwater footage is juxtaposed with longer testimonials from local recreational fishermen and charter boat owners who say the Deepwater Wind project has been a boon for them since opened it more than a year ago.

February 15, 2018 — A New Bedford-based fishing vessel sank Wednesday night off Martha’s Vineyard, but its crew of four is fine thanks to their fast action in taking safety measures, the Coast Guard said.

The Sea Star radioed about 6:20 p.m. that it was quickly taking on water, listing heavily and crew members were donning their survival suits, Petty Officer Nicole Groll, a Coast Guard public affairs specialist said about 9:10 p.m. Wednesday.

A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter and plane from Sector Southeastern New England, in the area for a training exercise, were diverted to the scene, Groll said. Determining that the vessel couldn’t be saved, the Coast Guard ordered the crew into the waters about 18 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, where they plucked them to safety via basket, she said.

The water temperature was 37 degrees, with 5-foot seas and 20 to 25 knot winds, making conditions difficult, Groll said.

The crew members were airlifted to Air Station Cape Cod where they were checked out by medical personnel and pronounced in good health, she said.

“The most important thing the crew did was to activate their EPIRB” (a positioning beacon) and don their survival suits, said Scott Backholm, the command duty officer at Sector Southeastern New England. While the EPIRB automatically goes off when a boat is sinking, the fact that they had the presence of mind to activate it before that “allowed us to get their exact location and get to them as quickly as possible,” he said.

February 14, 2018 — Is the scallop fishery well-managed? Most people, including scallop fishermen, scientists, and environmentalists, had the same answer: yes.

“I think the harvest is being managed, compared to any other fishery in New England, fabulously,” Peter Shelley, senior counsel at Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group, said.

The majority agree that the New England Fishery Management Council is doing a good job at keeping the scallop population sustainable and allowing fishermen to make a good living.

Last year, commercial fishermen landed more than $300 million worth of fish at the Port of New Bedford, and 85 percent of that value came from scallops.

Michael Quinn, whose family has been in the scallop fishing industry for 30 years, said he believes the industry is well-managed partly because of the collaboration between fishermen and researchers.

“We get to take scientists directly on our vessels,” Quinn said. “We go out to sea with them. We’re living with these people for a week at a time doing all the data together.”

Data on the scallop population is collected through drop camera surveys. That’s when scientists attach cameras to a big, metal, square frame and drop it to the bottom of the ocean. They take pictures of the scallops and then scientists on the management council’s Plan Development Team use that data to help figure out how much fishermen can catch and which areas should be opened or closed for fishing.

February 14, 2018 — Before he pleaded guilty to flouting federal catch limits and smuggling money, Carlos Rafael, nicknamed “the Codfather,” controlled the largest groundfishing fleet that sailed out of New Bedford. How are the city’s fishing industries moving forward after the trial? What does the future hold for groundfishing and other fisheries? What are the biggest promises and challenges? What lessons can be learned from Carlos Rafael?

February 13, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Offshore wind developers spent the majority of a 3-hour meeting Monday attempting to win over the local commercial fishing industry.

For much of the meeting, the fishermen in attendance rolled their eyes, scoffed at various PowerPoint slides and even went as far as to say offshore wind is unwanted.

“Nobody wanted this,” one fisherman out of Point Judith said. “Nobody wanted the problems. We were assured there would be none. And here we are.”

Twenty members of the Fisheries Working Group on Offshore Wind Energy sat around a table at SMAST East hoping to solve various issues between the two ocean-based industries.

The meeting, which featured representatives from Deepwater Wind, Vineyard Wind, and Bay State Wind and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, was called to discuss a plan for an independent offshore wind and fisheries science advisory panel.

“It’s not too late,” said David Pierce of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “As much as we’re working on, now, can be offered up to BOEM and to the different companies specific to the search of projects and specific search of scientific endeavors. We need the research. And we need research to help us address the questions that are being asked by the industry as well as ourselves.”

The science advisory panel would act independently to identify fishery-related scientific and technical gaps related to the future development of offshore wind projects. The panel could also identify offshore wind’s effects on the fishery within Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The panel’s members have yet to be comprised. Debate regarding who should be on the panel began Monday. Everyone agreed experts from all backgrounds should have a seat at the table.

February 12, 2018 — U.S. Representative William Keating recently met with new NOAA Regional Administrator Michael Pentony, and the congressman said he’s optimistic that the Sector IX groundfishing ban could soon come to an end.

“It was a great meeting,” Keating said. “There’s no learning curve with him in terms of what the issues are, and that’s an important thing.”

Keating met with Pentony on Tuesday night, just a few weeks after he was appointed the new regional administrator following the retirement of John Bullard.

“I requested, as soon as he was appointed, the opportunity to sit down with him,” Keating said. “He was great. He came to (Washington) D.C., sat down, and we talked for over an hour. We talked about general issues, but I also wanted to focus on what was going on in New Bedford in particular.”

The biggest issue, of course, is the groundfishing ban NOAA placed on Sector IX back in November. The ban is directly related to convicted “Codfather” Carlos Rafael, who owns 22 of the boats in Sector IX and whose illegal overfishing scheme has kept the sector from putting forth an operations plan acceptable to NOAA. Bullard said before his retirement that the ban cannot be lifted until the sector can accurately determine how much and what stocks Rafael overfished, and how the sector plans to go about making up for that number of lost fish.

Congressman Keating said his office has been in weekly contact with NOAA since the criminal proceedings against Rafael began last spring, because he said he knew then there would be repercussions that would reverberate through New Bedford and beyond.

February 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Crews managed to lift the fishing vessel Nemesis out of about 20 feet of water on Friday.

The Dinah Jane remained submerged but will be pulled from the water soon. It has yet to be determined when exactly.

The two Carlos Rafael scallopers sank around 1:30 a.m. Monday at Homer’s Wharf.

On Friday, crews blew air into the sunken vessel and used a crane to stabilize it. After examination, the Nemesis will likely remain docked off Homer’s Wharf, according to the Harbor Development Commission.

February 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In attempting to spread awareness for a fishermen’s safety seminar on Monday, Fishing Partnership Support Services included two case reports with its press release.

The first documented the case of the fishing vessel Katmai that sank in 2008. The other disclosed information surrounding the sinking of the fishing vessel Lydia & Maya.

Seven members of the Katmai never returned home. Fortunately, every member of the Lydia & Maya survived.

“Oh, absolutely (it could save lives,)” Dennehy said. “If they have stability problems, we cover some of the things that they need to address those problems especially if they’re taking on water.”

The safety training is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center at 38 Bethel St.

The program will include PowerPoint presentations and hands-on training. The first part of the day will act as the informational portion while the second half will allow the participants to implement what they learned.

“It’s important that they understand some of the physics first and then we talk to the practical, how does that practically apply to your boat?” Dennehy said.

The training will include stability principles and stability curve as well as understanding stability reports.

February 12, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Carlos Rafael, whose initials are emblazoned on boats all over this port city, boasted that his fishing empire was worth even more than official records showed. His trick? When he caught fish that are subject to strict catch limits, like gray sole or cod, he would report that his nets were filled with something far more plentiful, like haddock.

“We call them something else, it’s simple,” Mr. Rafael told visitors who seemed interested in buying his business. “We’ve been doing it for over 30 years.” He showed off a special ledger labeled “cash.” And he described an under-the-table deal he had going with a New York fish buyer, saying at one point, “You’ll never find a better laundromat.”

But Mr. Rafael’s visitors turned out to be Internal Revenue Service agents, and the conversations, caught on tape and described in court documents, began the unraveling of Mr. Rafael, whose reign over a segment of this region’s fishing industry gave him his larger-than-life nickname, “the Codfather.”

As Mr. Rafael sits in prison, having pleaded guilty to lying about his catches and smuggling cash out of the country, nearly two dozen of his boats have been barred from fishing for species like cod and haddock, grinding part of the centuries-old maritime economy in the nation’s most lucrative fishing port to a halt.

Fishermen, ice houses and shoreside suppliers who once did business with Mr. Rafael are anxious, as their own businesses have slowed or stopped. Regulators, who oversee a federal system aimed at limiting what the industry fishes for, want more penalties, raising doubts about the future of the port when it comes to groundfish, the bottom-dwelling species like cod that were once the backbone of the fishing industry in New England.

“There are a lot of people on this waterfront, very hardworking people, whose livelihood depends on Carlos’s landings,” said Jon Mitchell, the mayor of New Bedford. “They don’t deserve to suffer along with him.”

Tony Fernandes, a captain on one of Mr. Rafael’s boats, said he was collecting unemployment benefits and waiting to learn when he may be able to fish again. “He’s putting in his time and he paid his fine,” he said of Mr. Rafael. “We are in limbo.”

For decades, Mr. Rafael, 65, was a blustery, polarizing figure along these piers. He called himself a pirate, and mocked smaller competitors as maggots or mosquitoes. When he wasn’t yelling into his phone in Portuguese, he held court around town, talking politics and fish. The authorities said he owned one of the country’s largest commercial fishing enterprises, and analysts estimate that he controlled about one-quarter of New England’s landings of groundfish. Mr. Rafael also had boats to harvest scallops, which now make up a much greater share of New Bedford’s total landings than groundfish do.

But Mr. Rafael also served as a dealer for the seafood that came off his boats, which prosecutors say made it easier for him to lie about what he was catching and how much he was getting for it.

“Carlos Rafael has been well known in the commercial fishing industry for 30 years,” said Andrew Lelling, the United States attorney for Massachusetts, who prosecuted the case. “And, for almost as long, federal law enforcement has heard rumors and concerns about Rafael acting illegally.”

Some people in New Bedford saw Mr. Rafael far differently — as a Robin Hood of sorts, with a pack of cigarettes and a dinged-up Silverado. He was a Portuguese immigrant who had started out cutting fish and eventually provided jobs for many people along a waterfront that has been bustling since Herman Melville immortalized its cobblestone streets and whaling ships in “Moby Dick.”

He saw an opportunity eight years ago when the government moved forward with a new regulatory system in New England, after Congress mandated that science-based limits be used to prevent overfishing. The cod catch, long a staple of New England’s economy, had fallen over the years.

Instead of the former approach of limiting how many days boats could spend at sea, the new regulations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration set specific ceilings on how many fish could be caught. The rules instantly were contentious, especially when regulators set low limits for dwindling species like cod to help them rebound.